Irreplaceable
by JohnTitor
Summary: There are certain people in ones life who are irreplaceable... right?


**Irreplaceable**

**ir·re·place·a·ble** adjective: _incapable of being replaced; unique._

* * *

><p>I punched him. I punched him as hard as I could.<p>

He started bleeding from his nose. Maybe I broke it. I hoped I did.

Jasmine in the background, who had stayed quite until now just stared at me in shock.

Flint, who was holding his nose, turned and screamed at me "Well fuck you too." Then he punched my jaw.

That's when I blacked out. I figured the punch was strong enough to knock me out

* * *

><p>I remember how this had all started. It was a special Halloween Contest. Me and my friend were suppose to go see my girlfriend perform. It started at 8pm and it was currently 6pm but she had to be there earlier so we were in a bit of a hurry, yet Flint wasn't anywhere to be seen. He was currently crashing at my gym; it was a pretty big gym that I had built, two stories—currently. We were getting tired of waiting for him, so we decided to go look for him upstairs. We knocked on the guest room door, but no one would answer.<p>

"Damn it. Where is he? We're going to be late and it'll take forever to get in with all your fans in the way. We should have been there by now."

"Calm down Volkner. He's probably with his other friend." Jasmine replied to me. She was always so calm, I may seem calm, but I was actually easily angered. She really kept my emotions in check.

Jasmine and I had been dating for a year. It was during this festival last year that we had met. It was the beginning of great and troublesome times.

You see, this was an important contest. A lot of people attended this event. Last year it was held in Slateport City in Hoenn. Flint kept telling me we should go, that it was going to be tons of fun.

* * *

><p>"Come on Volkner!" Flint kept nagging.<p>

"No. I don't want to travel to Hoenn." I really didn't, I lived by the beach, and we had perfect weather.

Once again Flint kept nagging. "Come on! We'll have tons of fun, we can get smashed, maybe get in a fight or two, it'll be like old times."

_Old times._ Yeah things had definitely changed from when we were little kids. At some point this carefree guy had surpassed me and now he was technically my superior.

"I said no Flint!" He was getting on my nerves, most people would have quit pestering, I don't want to brag, but I'm a bit intimidating—or so they say. Flint wasn't most people though; he knew that if push came to shove I wouldn't escape unharmed.

"Volkneeeeeeeeeeeeeer." That was unnecessary, but he knew I was close to caving. I hate to admit it, but going to Hoenn was better than having to listen to Flint complain.

"Fine." I had caved.

"There we go! That's the spirit." Flint looked at me with a huge grin. "Once we're there I'll be your wingman and we can get you laid. It'll definitely be worth it to see you loosen up."

"Yeah sure, you'll probably just ditch me to go flirt with Flannery."

* * *

><p>Low and behold it was the day of the event and I was sitting at a table alone. It was one of those Dine and Theatre types of place. There was a center stage and all around there were tables where guests sat and watched the performance. It was an upscale strip club in my opinion.<p>

Currently there was a young girl, blue hair and her Loppuny dancing exotically. I don't know what it is with Coordinators, but they all seemed to go for the sex appeal nowadays. I may not seem like it, but I was a chivalrous type of guy. Deep down, I wanted nothing more than to be a knight in shining armor for a special girl.

"Disgusting."

The comment surprised me; it came from the table next to me. I turned and I was stunned, she was a young beautiful woman, maybe my age, definitely older than the current coordinator. Long luscious brown hair came down her back and she was wearing a simple white summer dress that reached her kneecaps, with a flower pattern at the bottom.

She seemed as appalled as I did at the girl on stage, currently grinding on her Loppuny. It was something that Flint would've loved.

That reminded me, he and Flannery had left about an hour ago; I guess they were really going at it.

I turned to see the woman leaving. For some reason I stood up and left as well going after her.

As the doors to place closed I could barely hear the cheers for Dawn and her Loppuny. Then the girl turned around and saw me.

I stood there staring at her. I realized I probably should've thought of something to say before chasing after her. I stuck my hands in my pocket and found a lighter, pilling it out I offered it to her,

"Need a light?"

She stared at me confused, "I don't smoke."

"Me either…" I mumbled.

She giggled at this. "My name's Jasmine." IT WORKED! I guess it was enough to _melt_ the ice.

"Hey, my name's Volkner." I stuck my hand out and she took it, it was a strong grip, and made me wonder if she was the strong type of woman. You know, a feminist, someone who would look down on me for holding the door open for her. It took me a second to realize we were still holding hands.

I pulled my hand away shyly. "Sorry."

"No problem." She smiled again.

"Umm… Want to get a cup of coffee?" She looked a bit surprised, hesitant as well, but smiled in the end. God, that smile was intoxicating.

"Yeah I'd love to."

She stuck out her arm, and I figured she wanted me to take it. It was nice; I knew it was too early for holding hands, but this was just as nice. It wasn't done as much anymore. Once again, I started thinking what kind of woman she was, but quickly chided myself. Over thinking was a huge flaw of mine. We walked to a coffee shop across the street. We sat down and ordered two coffees, decaf.

"So you're the type of guy that goes to those types of contests, yet you open doors for women?"

I guess it did seem odd, maybe as much as her firm handshake, and later giving me her arm.

I smiled.

"No, not really. A friend of mine invited me, but being the type of guy he is, he left a while ago to performing the act that was being insinuated on stage."

To my surprise, she looked away and blushed.

"I didn't see you sitting with a friend though."

I gave her a surprised response, "You were looking at me?"

She looked at me coyly, "A young blonde man sitting all alone? Of course, I am a woman after all."

It surprised me how a second ago she was blushing at the act of making love, yet now she was affirmative and strong. She really is an interesting woman.

I smiled, but I'm not a sex driven male, that was Flint. "So what brings you to an upscale strip joint like that?"

She laughed at my joke, but then straightened up in her chair.

"I was going to be one of those exotic dancers."

I choked on my coffee, well then; I'm not getting a second date.

"Relax," She scolded "I wanted to go up there, but after seeing them act, like that, I didn't really feel like going up there anymore."

"Well I'm sure you could've won. It's not all about looking like a slut, despite what many think."

She smiled at me.

We conversed about many topics from then on till it was midnight and the coffee shop was going to close.

Outside I looked at Jasmine, she was a whole head shorter than me, and it just made her cuter.

"I had a lot of fun; I didn't think that this trip to Hoenn would be so great."

She smiled up at me, pulling on my heartstrings. "Me too," putting her hand inside her purse she pulled out a business card. "Here's my card. Make sure to call me."

I took the card and held her hand within mine and looked deep in her eyes, "I will." I leaned in for the kiss, but she turned and gave me her cheek. I took it nonetheless. A taxi came to pick her up, but she stopped before going.

"I swear if you wait three days to call, I'm not answering." She got inside and closed the door.

I started laughing; as if I would follow such crappy dating advice.

I turned around and headed to the hotel, I was starving since I didn't eat much at the contest, nor did I eat anything at the coffee shop. Once I arrived at the hotel and boarded the elevator, I smelt it. It reeked of weed.

"Great, Flint's getting high as fuck."

I reached my room, and used the card key to get in and was instantly covered in smoke.

"Ack, what the fuck Flint!"

"Sorry dude."

I was about to say something when I realized something. That wasn't Flint's voice. I was ready to get in a fight when I heard Flint call out.

"Oh yeah, sorry bro. I didn't think we were going to smoke it all, but this is some good shit."

Quickly closing the door I turned to the small living room. There lying on each couch was a Caucasian male. One male had blonde hair, lighter than mine, and the other the red afro known to belong to Flint.

I turned to the blonde male. "Hey, I'm Volkner."

The man took off the scarf covering his eyes and squinted when the light from the room blinded him. "Yo, i'm Morty."

"And I'm Flint."

I rolled my eyes.

"You know, one day you're getting caught with all this shit and you're going to get fired."

"Nah man. I've been doing this for years and haven't gotten caught once."

The other blonde backed him up, "Plus this is medicinal marijuana."

The way he said it made me doubt it. He lay back down and covered his eyes.

I headed for the kitchen and opened up the fridge.

"Damn it Flint, did you clean this out?"

He sat up from the couch and gave me a sheepish grin, "Yeah, my bad. Didn't you get something to eat at the contest?"

"No, I left early."'

"Oh?" Damn it, I shouldn't have said that. "But it's already midnight, where did you go?"

"Ummm.. I met a girl…"

"You dog!"

"Nnn. Keep it down guys."

I looked at the guy on the couch. "What the fuck?"

"Leave him be." Flint headed over to the kitchen with a bit of difficulty. "Sooooooo?"

"What"

"Give me some details you prude!"

"Well she's a gym leader from Johto."

"Yeah? What's her name? Is it Clair? I heard she's a freaaaak in bed."

"What? No. Her name is Jasmine."

"Ohhh. Haven't heard much of her. Man you should have gotten with Clair. I really wanted to hear about her."

I replied to him in a flat tone. "Then go get to know her." Sometimes I wished he would just be happy for me, but I figure this is what guys act like. After all I never really had many friends besides him.

"Nah, she may be a freak, but her cousin is a little over protective. I'll pass on that. So… back to your girl… You get a number?'

"Yeah. I think I'm going to call her tomorrow when we get to the gym."

"What? Nooooo! Bro, as your bro, I have to tell you to wait at least three days before calling her."

I chuckled at him. "Really? No one follows such lame advice man. Maybe that's why you don't get to many second dates."

"I don't get second dates because I get what I want on the first date. You know what I mean?" He held up his hand in the air for of a high five, and despite not agreeing with him, I couldn't bring myself to denying him of the high five.

SMACK.

That was going to sting for a while.

"Well get to sleep, we're going to head out tomorrow."

"Ugh fine. But can we take a later plane, me and Morty were going to go finish the bag he has before we get checked at security."

I sighed, "Yeah sure."

* * *

><p>That was the beginning of many hardships we faced in the past year.<p>

It was great at first. Morty said he had taken an injury vacation so he came over to Sinnoh and stayed for a month.

I still remember the first huge argument we had.

* * *

><p>I had heard giggling coming from the entertainment room upstairs. Once they heard me coming though they jumped off the computer. I walked into the room as I saw a Rapidash fucking some poor girl.<p>

"What the fuck man?" I ran over to the computer and quickly X'd out of the tabs. "What were you guys looking at?"

"Nuffin muffin." Flint looked up at me from the ground where he was laying atop of a Voltorb bean bag.

"Would you like a muffin?" It was Morty.

I noticed there was no smoke, yet these two were still high. "No thanks."

"Meh, your loss."

"So listen Volty, me and Morty are going to that carnival north of the Champ's castle. Want to come?"

I raised an eyebrow, "Volty?"

"Well he's Morty and so I thought you should be Volty. No likey?" Flint was making little sense.

"Uhm… Not really."

"Meh," now he even sounded like Morty, "so do you want to go the carnival? Maybe we can find an Ace Trainer or a Lass to shag?"

"…Do you remember Jasmine?"

"Oh yeah… Well what she don't know don't hurt her."

I sighed. "No thanks man. I was going to call Jasmine in a bit anyways."

"Whiiiiiped."

"What?"

"I said you're whipped." He looked at my glare, "Come on! I know you're dying to cure your blue balls."

"No dude, what the fuck?"

"Oh come on, you're no fun anymore. You used to be stoic but at least kind of badass." He looked at me a bit saddened, "but now you hardly care about anything besides Jasmine. You don't even care about your gym!" He looked angry now, "You even started giving badges away! Giving them away! What the fuck man, I'm going to have to report it eventually; I can't just let that slide despite how much I care about you."

I knew he was right, but I didn't want to admit it. "No! I'm giving them away because I'm bored of battling. The chumps, who come here, yet can't even take down one of my pokemon. Even those who have a Torterra, freeze over to Electivire." It wasn't a complete lie, yeah kids were weak, but still, this was pretty much a huge lie.

"Ugh whatever man. Go call your fucking girl." He stood and wobbled out of the room along with Morty.

* * *

><p>I had tried to apologize later, but he just shrugged and said it was the weed.<p>

I know people who are drunk often tell the truth, I wonder if that applies to drugs as well.

Jasmine and I got more serious, and she often visited me in Sunnyshore.

I remember the first time she came over.

* * *

><p>She was leaving my room early in the morning wearing my blue coat. It reached down below her knees and made her look incredibly attractive. It wasn't long when the door to the house opened and Flint walked in. He had a key that I sure as hell don't remember giving him.<p>

"Whoa, looks like Volkner just got a bit more attractive."

I was walking down the stairs when I saw her blushing, "Hey Flint, what are you doing up so early?"

"Well it's your birthday; I didn't think you were going to be busy though."

"Oh do you have something planned for Volty?"

I saw his eyebrow rise and hoped he would ignore it.

"Yeah, sort of. I was going to take him to this restaurant an hour or so away. The Seven Stars Restaurant, have you hear-"

Her shriek was all we needed to hear to know she had heard of the restaurant.

I really wanted to go, but Flint hadn't invited Jasmine, and it _was_ a pretty exclusive restaurant so I couldn't just bring her along.

I started scratching the back of my head, "Ummm. I don't really feel like battling this early in the morning just to eat breakfast…"

Flint looked at the floor and then looked up at me. I was still on the stairs so he had to look up. "Uhm, you two can go I reserved two spots, just for you two."

Jasmine looked overjoyed, but then she realized that Flint didn't know she was coming, but before she could protest I had pulled her upstairs to change. When we came down the stairs Flint left the reservations on the table and he was gone.

I know he would never admit it, but I'm pretty sure that me choosing to go to breakfast with Jasmine instead of going with him really did hurt him, but she _had_ just visited, _all the way_ from Johto, _just_ to see me. I didn't really have any other choice.

That was just what I told myself.

Had Jasmine lived in Sinnoh, I probably would have chosen to hang out with her either way.

* * *

><p>Sometimes I would go visit her and Flint would tag along. Sometimes he hung out with us, but most of time he went to go get high with Morty.<p>

"Goodmorning Flint, how you been?"

"Meh, I'm fine. Thanks for letting me stay here tonight, but I'm going to go meet up with Morty at Ecruteak City."

Just like that he left us. It was kind of nice, seeing as now Jasmine and I got to go to her Lighthouse, yet I really wanted Flint and Jasmine to get along. It frustrated me that he would go out of his way to ignore us.

He would come back smelling of sex, and despite saying he went to see "The Kimono Girls" I'm sure he went to a brothel.

* * *

><p>When we were at home things were fine. We would train and work out together. Sometimes discuss things going on around the world, but somehow I started spending my time on the phone more.<p>

I tried to balance my time with Flint and Jasmine, but as time went on, she started taking up more time than I had. Flint has business as an Elite Four and I'm a gym leader. Along with everything, it was getting harder to hang out.

Then he pretty much started living at my house a couple months ago.

Ring, ring ring.

I picked up the house phone,

"Yo Volkner?"

"What's up Flint?"

"This is kind of embarrassing, but my apartment got burn when I fell asleep getting high and I forgot to put out one of the blunts."

I laughed for about ten minutes. When I picked up the phone he had hung up.

I was leaving my room with just my shorts on when I saw smoke coming out of the guest room.

"No…"

And there he was on my guest bed, lighting up a bong.

About a month ago Morty came as well and said that Flint had invited him to stay at his house before the Halloween Contest was going to take place. I told him he could stay at my gym, I didn't mind as long as they didn't burn it down.

Then Jasmine came and my gym was a full house.

She would cook us breakfast, sometimes, and I had to smack Flint a couple times when he would ask for a sandwich.

* * *

><p>In the past year I had managed to convince Jasmine to perform at this year's contest, and Flint said he would come with us since Morty was going to conduct a haunted house during the contest. It was like a side attraction, and I had helped him built it. It didn't even require Morty to be there since everything was pretty much electronically controlled, but someone needed to look over the place. Even a stoner like Morty couldn't mess up this job.<p>

That brought us to today. Flint was suppose to go to the contest, and Morty should've been gone by now, yet I had the feeling he was still in my home.

We headed to the game room of my gym. It was like a really big living room. It had a couch with a 360 and a PS3 connected to a flat screen one side of the room. The other side had a computer and on two Voltorb bean bags, were Morty and Flint high as fuck watching _Nyan Meowth_.

_Nyan nyan nyan nyan._

The damned monitor said well over 24 hours of _nyaning_.

"See, I told you he was here."

I just looked at Jasmine and sighed. We were definitely going to be late to her contest.

I headed over to the bean bangs and smacked Flint.

Flint groaned and looked up. "Oh shit!" he looked at us realizing what day it was. "What time is it?"

"6:10." I stated.

"Friday?" he replied.

I sighed, "No. Saturday."

"Aww fuck. I forgot to go to work." It was Morty who was sitting on the other bean bag.

"Look man, I totally forgot. We were just fucking around on the computer and this one guy said I couldn't _nyan_ longer than him."

Jasmine was about to tell him it was okay. I could see it in her face, yet I wasn't about to let him off the hook so easily.

"Dude. Who gives a fuck about who can nyan longer."

"Me! I wasn't going to let some pussy ass kid say he could last more than me."

"UGH."

"Look my bad man. I lost track of time an-"

"No shit. We noticed that already. We're going to be late because of you now."

He looked apologetic, "Look man, I'm sorry it's just tha-"

"NO. Fuck you man." I was tired of this already. "We don't hang out as much anymore. We're drifting away. We used to best friends, but we hardly talk anymore." I took a breath so that I would be able to raise my voice again."The one time we want to hang out with you again… You lose track of time? That's fucked up." I turned to make my dramatic exit. I turned down the hall and went into the bathroom.

It wasn't long before he showed up behind me along with Jasmine.

"Look man, I apologized. Stop being a little bitch."

"I'm not being a bitch, I'm just telling you the truth."

"No, don't try to make me feel guilty. I do a lot for you! I care about you like my own brother! You're the one who should feel guilty. You don't even care about me anymore…What happened to bros before hoes?"

"Bros before hoes? That's just stupid shit we say when we're single man. I love Jasmine, why can't you just be happy for me?"

"Be happy that some girl stole my best friend from me?"

"Best friend? You don't seem to care that much about me as you say. You replaced me quite easily with Morty didn't you?"

"Replace you? Hell no, Morty is just my seller. He sells me weed, we look at shit on the internet and get high, but we're not best friends."

"You still avoid me every time we go to Johto!"

"I don't avoid you, you dumbfuck. I give you time to be with your girlfriend. I know that you don't see her often, so I stay out of the way."

"…"

He mumbled something.

"What?"

"Myapartmentisn'tburnt."

"What are you talking about?"

"I didn't really burn down my apartment." He looked nervous, "I just sort of, got tired of being alone, and I guess I kinda missed you so I lied a little."

"What…? Why didn't you just tell me the truth?"

"The truth? That I miss you and I'm a little jealous of Jasmine?"

"Stop it; you're sounding kind of gay right now." I realized if he was I might of offended him, "Not that there's anything wrong with that, but you're my best friend, my bro, you know?"

He laughed a little. "You can ask half the women in Sinnoh and they'll tell you I'm not gay."

I shrugged at him. "Whatever."

He sighed. His gaze was stuck on the floor and I could see his hands balling into fists and rolling out.

"Look, you're just being a bitch. You know I'm your friend, but you keep choosing Jasmine over me. We were friends before you met her. When you got in fights at school, with kids twice your size, I was there to back you up. Yet all of a sudden this girl shows up and you don't give two shits about me."

"I do care about you Flint… It's just I care about Jasmine as well. Why can't you just accept that?"

"Don't you think I know that? I gave you two tickets to an exclusive restaurant!"

"Oh wow! _Two fucking meals_? I guess I should give you an arm and a leg."

"It's not just the fucking breakfast _**VOLTY**_. It was a tradition. We went to that restaurant every fucking year, and you knew it, but still you choose that… that _whore_ over me!"

"That whore?" I was fuming. "That whore is my girlfriend, why can't you just be happy that I'm happy?"

That's when things got ugly.

I punched him. I punched him as hard as I could.

He started bleeding from his nose. Maybe I broke it. I hoped I did.

Jasmine in the background, who had stayed quite until now just stared at me in shock.

Flint, who was holding his nose, turned and screamed at me "Well fuck you too." Then he punched my jaw.

That's when I blacked out. I figured the punch was strong enough to knock me out

* * *

><p>As I opened my eyes, everything was groggy. I was on my knees and my vision was hazy. I grabbed my jaw to see if I could move and realized my hands were wet. That's when I looked at my hands. They were covered in blood—not my own.<p>

I looked at the floor and there in front of me was Flint's body, bleeding from the head, his whole face dripped in the red liquid.

"What have you done Volkner?" It was Jasmine. She was on her knees next to Flint checking his pulse. "He's dead… You killed him."

I looked at my hands, and at the body in front of me. It finally dawned on me; I had just killed my best friend.

"What are you going to do?" Jasmine was trembling. I could see she was freaking out.

I started to hyperventilate. What was I going to do? One thing was for sure though, I wasn't going to jail. I needed to stay calm. I know Jasmine was usually the calm one, but one look at her bloodshot eyes told me that she wasn't calm anymore. It told me that she was on the verge of breaking down. I couldn't allow that to happen. We need to stay calm and think things through. I wasn't going to go to jail, and I sure as hell wasn't going to let them take her away as well, nor was I going to let her just leave me to my doom. I needed to make sure she understood that.

"What am _**I**_ going to do?"

She looked up at me. I got up on my feet and walked closer to her. She was shaking even harder. I knelt down before her and grabbed her bare shoulders, leaving red handprints on her skin. Her beautiful skin felt hot as my bloodied cold hands held her. I made sure she looked up at me. "What are _**WE**_ going to do!"

She looked at me, confusion and fear were written all over her face. "WE? I had nothing to do with this Volkner. I'm not the one who… I'm…" She couldn't form sentences any longer. "You're the one who killed him!"

"NO!" I love you Jasmine, but I'm not going to lose you too. "You watched me! You could have stopped me, but you didn't! You're just as guilty as me!"

"… no… No! NO!"

"Yes! I'm not going to jail Jasmine!" My screams were getting louder, but I needed her to stay with me. If she ran into shock we were fucked and we would probably end up in jail. "We just need to act smart! We can both get away with this. We can get rid of the body, wait a couple months then move away. Leave this all in the past."

"For fucks sake Volkner! He's an Elite Four, not some prostitute!"

"I don't care, I'm not an idiot. People know of his habits, they won't suspect of me! Come on baby, don't you trust me? I love you!"

She looked a little hopeful.

Then the restroom door opened.

"Yo? Flint?" It was Morty. He saw us and was about to ask where Flint was when he saw my bloody hands on Jasmine's shoulder.

"Holy shit! What happ-"

That's when he saw it. Our best friend's body lying stiff covered in blood behind us.

"What the fuck did you guys do?"

He was just about to leave when I grabbed him by his hand pulled him down to the floor. Then I punched him in the face. Again. Again. Again. Again. Even after his body stopped squirming I kept punching.

Jasmine was screaming for me to stop. She was scared. She screamed and screamed till her voice was going hoarse. I ran up to her and wrapped her in a hug. My arms went around her and I kneeled next to her as she cried into my shoulder. She eventually let go and just started sobbing.

I pulled out a switch blade from my pocket.

"W-What are you doing with that?" She whispered.

"We need to…" a muffled sob came out. "…get rid of the bodies…"

She looked at me as I started taking one of the guy's shirts off soon followed by the rest of his clothes. Then as she bawled in the background, I proceeded to cut up the bodies into parts. Little by little, piece by piece we flushed the body parts down the toilet. Then all we had were the clothes. We grabbed the shirts and cleaned the bloody floors with them. After that Jasmine pulled out a lighter from either Morty or Flint's jeans and burned the clothes and flushed them down the toilet once they were unrecognizable. We stood up and walked out and left to the room we had shared. Changed clothes in silence and left to the contest. If anyone asked anything, that's where we were, and that's where we were supposed to meet our friend. The one who never showed up.


End file.
